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White Wind Zen Community

The White Wind Zen Community is the Sangha of students of Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi. The Community was founded in 1985 and has several aspects: the Northern Mountain Order, which is the monastic core of the community, and the community of formal, general, associate and public students. In 1985, when Zen Master Anzan Hoshin was asked to name the Sangha of students who had gathered around him, he named this community White Wind Zazenkai - Hakukaze Zazenkai, after the monastery that his own teacher had founded, Hakukaze-ji, and the name of the stream of Dogen's Lineage of Zen that he had inherited and has now passed on. Zazenkai means "gathering together for zazen." The Zazenkai was renamed White Wind Zen Community in 1989 and is now based in the Zen Centre of Ottawa. It also has branch centres in Guelph, Ontario; Wolfville, Nova Scotia; and Harrow, England; and students practising individually around the world.

Programs

The Community provides an ongoing environment of study and training for monastics and students. This includes morning and evening sittings, four seven-day O-sesshin (intensive training periods), seven two-day sesshin and one yaza (all-night sitting) each year, retreats, Dharma Assemblies, residential training, and study of the vast body of traditional Dharma. A variety of classes and tutorials are also available to students. As well as the extensive teisho (presentations of the Teachings) by Zen Master Anzan Hoshin, his Dharma successors Ven. Shikai Zuiko o-sensei and Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho-ajari also present Dharma Talks. Ongoing programs for the public to contact the Dharma include monthly Introduction to Zen workshops and the Long Distance Training Program. The Zen Centre of Ottawa also hosts tours and makes available speakers to grade schools and high schools throughout the region.

Enrolment

Enrolment in the While Wind Zen community as a student of the Roshi takes seven basic forms: associate student, general student, probationary formal student, formal student, monastic, branch student, or public student, as described in Entering the Gates of Practice.

Associate students attend the weekly Thursday evening associate sittings, receive daisan (private meetings with a Dharma Teacher) or practice interviews (private meetings with a practice advisor) and have access to recorded teisho and Dharma Talks. In addition they may attend Dharma Assemblies, schedule retreats or engage in a period of residential training . General students attend one or more of the general sittings and may arrange to attend all scheduled formal sittings except for sittings and intensives such as sesshin that are specifically designated for formal students or monastics. Probationary formal students and formal students study and practice intimately with the Roshi, Shikai sensei or Jinmyo osho and attend scheduled formal sittings and monthly sesshin. Formal students committed to deepening their own practice and becoming a resource for the practice of their fellow students may enter the rigour of monastic training as a laymonk or monk. Branch members practise at centres or groups established under the direction of the Roshi. Residential training at Dainen-ji is available. There are also public students practising and studying at home in Canada, the United States, Europe, India, China, Japan, the Middle East, and West Africa. These students receive regular guidance and instruction by email, telephone and letter. They may also access teisho, Dharma Talks and classes from the online Recorded Teachings library. For more information concerning the resources available to public students, please read the information on the "Long Distance Training Program".

Newsletter

The eMirror is published weekly and emailed out every Friday. Each issue is illustrated and includes quotations from teisho and information about our schedule and activities.